One of my students, age 12, accidentally invented a really good way of handling the right hand lead Reed system. You have to watch out for things like that. Sometimes mistakes point to a better […]
Category: Reed interpretations
Bossa warmups
Five pretty-easy Syncopation systems for getting warmed up with some bossa materials. And for getting it together in the first place, if you’re just learning the style. Use with pp. 38-45 in Syncopation. Play all […]
Subtractive method: EZ bossa system
A simple thing that works shockingly well for creating a functional bossa groove that breathes. You’ll recall that this “subtractive method” is a way of revoicing the rhythms in Syncopation, based on how they line […]
Reed tweak: RH lead triplets – fast within slow
This has been an item of interest for a long time— playing fast in a slow tempo. In a master class Peter Erskine mentioned that Jack Dejohnette was the only drummer he knew who could […]
Simple four limb unison warmups
Here’s a set of simple four limb warm ups, that are heavy on the unisons… an underrated practice item. Take your pick, run p. 38 of Syncopation with 4-5 of these, at a reasonably bright […]
Double time Reed tweak: one step beyond
Launching to the outer limits of what you can reasonably do with Syncopation, verging on losing the melody rhythm as a point of reference. Or not, see what you make of it. Using one of […]
More on that double timing tweak…
Clarifying the method behind that Reed tweak from last week, double timing the very familiar, friendly, happy, easy RH lead Reed system— RH plays book rhythm on a cymbal + bass drum in unison, LH […]
Reed tweaks: double timing RH lead
A collection of warmups for adding 16th notes to our good friend the right hand lead Reed system. You can work them up to practice them while reading from Syncopation, or these could be your […]
Reed tweak: RH lead with single cym / flam
Yet another right hand lead Reed tweak— YART, or YARHLRT, for short. It’s a little convoluted, but works out a slightly different thing from the other systems/tweaks we’ve done, and I think it’s worthwhile. The […]
One measure 5/4 triplet fills with Reed!
Another one of my hack and slash jobs. This is something I improvised in a lesson— a student is working on some of the Pages o’ Coordination in 5/4, based on an Elvin Jones groove, […]
Syncopation Ex. 1 – modified for speed
Another one of my cut and paste jobs, this time inflicted on Syncopation Exercise 1, from Reed. P. 37 or 38, depending on the edition. I’ve modified it so there are no more than two […]
Reed tweak: linear fill in another setting
A similar item to another recent thing, with a Reed system I use pretty often, but don’t talk about much— with the hands plaing the book rhythm, and the bass drum filling in the spaces. […]